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While I was on my trip to Verona, Italy this spring, I purchased some beautiful, soft cotton gauze. I knew this would be perfect for dyeing some lightweight spring and summer scarves.

Each scarf is individually dyed with Procion MX dyes. I challenged myself to create some softer more pastel colours and am happy with the combination of the turquoise and amethyst.

Of course, I also dyed a few in more intense colours! This central portion of this scarf was gathered onto a narrow pipe where the purple and blue was placed, leaving the edges free.

I love using the same colour in different intensities. This cotton gauze scarf was first dyed in a pale pink and overdyed in a burgundy.

All of the scarves a generous 18 x 80 inches or 45 x 200 cm. They have raw fringed edges and are machine washable.They can be left to dry for the soft crinkly look you see in the photos. Of course, they can also be ironed for a more crisp effect. All of my Italian cotton gauze scarves are available for $40.00 each.

I spent last Saturday teaching an enthusiastic and adventurous group of women hand dyeing with Procion MX dyes. Kristyn of the London Modern Quilt Guild of Canada asked me last year if I would be interested in teaching how I dye fabrics to the guild members. I was excited to be able to share my love of dyeing.

I created kits for all the participants.

Our group set up in a room in the East Lions Artisans Centre in London, Ontario. It is a great facility with access to plenty of water! Necessary for any dyeing workshop.

Some of the beautiful and colourful hand dyed fabrics drying.

One of the very courageous members @melonpatch.quilts brought cotton yarn. The example above is dyed with olive-green and then sprinkled with black. I can’t wait to see the results.

These are just a few of the lovely pieces that the guild members experimented with. T-shirts, silk scarves, linen, silk noile, a canvas hat, and many pieces of cotton were dyed in a rainbow of colours.

Thank you all for letting me spend the day with you, sharing and creating a rainbow of fabrics.

l finally ironed the fabric that I dyed during the Labour Day weekend. With this dyeing session, I was trying to obtain colours that were fairly regular with little or no mottling. To obtain this result, I spent five minutes constantly manipulating the fabric when the dye was added. Once the soda ash was added, I manipulated the fabric for another minute. All of the colours were left in the dye buckets overnight.

Of all the colours I dyed, the black is the most consistent, with very little variation in colour.

Black

Purple

Royal Blue

Cerulean Blue

Turquoise

Green

Red

Fuchsia

Orange

Golden Yellow

Yellow

The other fabrics show more variation in their colour, especially the darker colours like the purple, blues and green. I do like the effect of the mottling and it can be used to great effect. In some of the fabrics, the variation of colour looked like feathers, some looked like flowers.

Next time, I will experiment with pre soaking the fabrics in the soda ash and then adding the dye. This might produce more consistent colours. Definitely, dyeing fabric flat on a table as Kathleen Probst and Robyn Ferrier describe in their blogs results in very solid looking colours. What do you look for in hand dyed fabrics?

This lightweight wool scarf was dyed a few weeks ago. I folded and clamped it with a wooden resist. It was then dipped into blue and green Procion MX dyes. The bundle was placed in the steamer to set the dye.

Some personal info

I am a quilter who loves colour. The compositions, lines, patterns and colours around me inspire my work. I am passionate about learning and with every project I focus on new techniques to improve my skills. I find great satisfaction in teaching others to develop their technical and design skills. My goal is to encourage others to explore their creativity and challenge them to expand their technical abilities and design boundaries.